GED Math: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving’s comin’ up ’round the corner, so I figured I put up a little something about turkey and stuff. Check it out:

A 12lb turkey at the grocery store costs $13.50 and feeds 8 people. A pint of potato salad costs $3.50 per pint, and one pint can feeds about 3 people. A large can of yams is on sale for $4, and that feeds 5 people. Finally, a pumpkin pie feeds about 6 people and costs $4.99. Paula is shopping for Thanksgiving and is planning on having 16 guests, including herself. How much will it cost to make sure there is enough of each item for everyone?

This is the kinda question that shows how Math can be practical for everyday use, right? I’ve never bought thanksgiving dinner myself, but sometimes you get some friends comin’ over for some pizza and beers, and you gotta know how much to buy for everyone (and how much you charge them at the door).

So first thing I gotta do here is write out all the information, to make sure I get what they’re askin’.

Paula’s got 16 people comin’ for dinner. First I gotta break down the problem and see how many people each type of food feeds. I’ll make a quick list.

12lb Turkey – $13.50 – Feeds 8

Potato Salad – $3.50 – Feeds 3

Yams – $4.00 – Feeds 5

Pumpkin – $4.99 – Feeds 6

Once I got all this information laid out, it’s pretty simple to figure things out:

The turkey feeds 8, and we know that 8 × 2 is 16, so that’s easy. She needs 2 turkeys. That’s $27.

A pint of potato salad feeds 3, so she’d need 6 pints to feed 16 since 3 × 6 = 18. 3 × 5 is only 15, and that wouldn’t be enough salad for everyone. So then I gotta times 6 × 3.50 to get $21

She’d need 4 cans of yams, so that’s $16, and 3 pumpkin pies. That’s $14.97. Usually I’d just round the pie up to $5, which makes it an easy $15, but since we gotta have the exact answer here, I can’t do that. So adding up all those answers, I got $78.97. Damn, that’s expensive. And it ain’t even including no drinks. See, that’s why I never have no Thanksgiving at my place. Gotta clean it all up too, no way. I just go out to a buffet and pay like ten bucks for all I can eat. That’s how you do it, yo.

Have a good Thanksgiving y’all.

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